Sam Hardwick's web journal

Which has more cars (in absolute terms) – the United States in 1929 or China today? Well, obviously it has to be… hmm, well, you have to consider… let’s see. Hm. Maybe it’s not so easy. How many hundreds of millions of carless peasants does China have? Then again, did American farmers in 1929 have cars? Then again, I’d bet a lot of regular Wei Lis in China’s cities don’t have cars either. The Ford Motor Company got started in 1903 and brought out the Model T in 1908 – plenty of time to crank out lots of cars by 1929. Still, it has to be China. Surely. No! According to this book (reputedly) it’s the US in 1929. Whodathunkit?